Radio City Music Hall

Here’s a Program from April, 1959:

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You can’t win ‘em all. Despite its great cast (with Chevalier direct from “Gigi”) and ads that promised a “really riotous romantic comedy,” I found the film a huge dud and completely forgettable. About a year ago, I tuned into TCM while it was being shown and asked myself in disbelief, “I saw that at RCMH?” The scene I watched exposed Kerr in a shower scene full-length nude behind an opaque tub enclosure, totally gratuitously and without any relevance to the plot. Gasp.

In his admirable, lucid, cranky New Biographical Dictionary of Film, David Thomson writes of the director and the late ‘50s that they represent “the worst of cinema, when production schedules had not shrunk to the new, smaller audience or begun to aspire to its higher standards. For a few years, major studios still churned out a pale version of their blithe past” (p. 627). We all have our prejudices, and I for one find many films from that era simply wonderful; but as a description of “Count Your Blessings,” I think Thomson’s estimate is right on target.

The Helvetian stage show provided its own whiff of decadence. Advertised as a “gigantic spectacle … featuring singers, dancers, native musicians, folk entertainers, especially brought from Switzerland for this extravaganza,” it has left no trace in my memory. Not even of the “Rock ‘n Yodel” by the Smeed Trio. It seems symptomatic that the Showplace Program abandoned its usual end-page announcement of the next attraction to offer instead a promotional raffle sponsored by laundry and dish detergent. The ad revenues likely offered some subvention for the stage extravaganza.

Myrtleave – Great ads. I love seeing this stuff.

north by northwest-1959
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reluctant debutante-1958
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prince and the showgirl-1957
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mister roberts-1955
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student prince-1954
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roman holida-1953
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kiss me kate-1953
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ivanhoe-1952
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the next voice you hear-1950
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glass menagerie-1950
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seven brides
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